This invention concerns a waiter""s auxiliary device for carrying ready portions of food to a table or for serving food from a dish.
Previously, on serving ready portions to a table, not more than three or possibly five plates could be carried at a time, depending on the skill of the waiter and the size of the portions. When serving three plates at a time, a first plate is supported by the three central fingers of one hand, a second plate is supported by the thumb, little finger and palm of the same hand and a third plate is carried in the other hand. On serving food from a dish to a plate of a customer the waiter""s arm will for a long time be in contact with the hot dish that he carries, simultaneously as the dish has to be kept in balance on the hand and arm.
The object of the present invention is to facilitate and increase the efficiency of the work of a waiter and to eliminate the above-mentioned problems. This is achieved by means of an auxiliary device, which is characterized in that the auxiliary device comprises a holder to be clamped onto an arm of a waiter, and carried by the holder a transversally extending support plate for supporting a plate or a dish partly placed on palm of the waiter. The auxiliary device is intended to be placed on the arm so that the support plate of the same is in a horizontal position when the arm is in a carrying position. According to a preferred embodiment the holder of the auxiliary device comprises two cooperating, somewhat elastic clamping legs extending forklike or U-shaped from underside of the support plate. The stiffness and shape of the clamping legs should be chosen so that the auxiliary device stays firmly on the arm of the waiter. The holder preferably has a short bar connecting the clamping legs to the center of the support plate, which bar forms a skew angle with the support plate. By means of the auxiliary device according to the invention a waiter is able to carry 4 to 8 plates of portions at a time to a table. An additional plate can be placed supported by the support plate of the auxiliary device, which is clamped on the arm and the wrist, and another additional plate can be fitted from a direction of the other hand into a gap between the support plate and a clamping leg, in which gap there is an acute angle between the support plate and the bar. When serving from a dish the auxiliary device according to the invention will also help in holding the dish firmly in place and will simultaneously protect the arm of the waiter from excessive heat.
Further features of the invention will appear from the dependent claims.